Playing Better Poker - the Intimidation Factor

Intimidation. It seems almost like a dirty word these days. Everyone loves the nice guys at the table, but lets face it, there are times when you're not there just to pal around with a bunch of strangers. You want to take home the big money. You're hungry for the dough, and you don't want to let anyone or anything get in the way of your goal. How do you do that without being labeled an arrogant asshole? How do you do that and maintain your friendship with your Thursday night poker buddies? That is what I plan on teaching you.

Lets talk for a minute about the game of poker. There are certain things that you cannot control about what goes on at the table. You can't affect what cards you have, you can't affect what cards your opponent has. You can't affect the flop or the dealer, or the shuffle of the game. You can't help it if someone with a huge stack suddenly gets seated right next to you. But there are things that you can control, and that is what intimidation is all about. You can control your own decision making, and to a certain extent, you can influence the decision making process of your opponent. The idea is to make them feel uncomfortable, unworthy of being you opponent. If you can do it successfully, you can force him into a corner, with his back against the wall, and then you'll be able to read the emotions on your opponents face.

Most of the time, when I talk to people about intimidation tactics, they immediately jump to talking about a player like Mike "the Mouth" or Daniel Negreanu. Certainly, these players are among the best at intimidating the newbies at the table, and they do it in a very active manner. They table talk, they make seemingly spontaneous decisions and show an enormous amount of confidence at the table. I think that is the easy part, but it's also the part that helps you make more enemies than friends. Nobody likes to lose to someone who's boasting about how great they are when they make that lucky play.